Saturday, January 16, 2010

They’re burning flags again in Pakistan, but this time it’s Norwegian flags:

It’s the usual story: a Norwegian newspaper reprinted the Danish Mohammed cartoons, and that didn’t sit too well with the upright citizens of Lahore. To make matters worse, a Norwegian MP is using ol’ Turban Bomb as his Facebook profile photo. The nerve!

The Aftenposten version of the story (in Norwegian) is here. The Washington Times blog had this to say:

A dozen Pakistani Muslim extremists in Lahore burned a Norwegian flag and chanted slogans after a Norwegian newspaper reprinted the famous Danish Mohammed cartoons and a Norwegian Member of Parliament changed his Facebook profile picture to the caricature of Mohammed with a bomb in his turban.

Ulf Erik Knudsen, a fourth term member of Norway’s Stortinget, said he posted the picture “in sympathy with one who is threatened by forces that want to restrict freedom of expression.”

This Knudsen fellow is behaving suspiciously like a Dane. Isn’t that against the law in Norway?- - - - - - - - -

This is a reference to artist Kurt Westergaard, who was the object of a New Years Day assassination attempt by a 28 year old Somali man affiliated with the al-Shabab movement. The picture originally ran in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September 2005. “We must ensure freedom of expression,” Mr. Knudsen told the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten. “It is threatened by certain sections of fundamentalist Islam, which is opposed by our Western values.”

Pakistan’s National Assembly passed a resolution condemning Aftenposten for reprinting the anti-Mohammed cartoons, calling it “a blasphemous act meant to provoke the Muslim Ummah.” Looks like it worked!

Terror plot accused planned to use truck bomb to blow up Jyllands-Posten newspaper, according to US Justice Department officials.

US citizen David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Canadian citizen and native of Pakistan, are already in police custody for their alleged roles in the plot against the newspaper in retribution for its printing of the Mohammed cartoons.

Additional conspiracy charges were recently filed against Ilyas Kashmiri, who has been identified as a leader of terrorist organisation Harakat-ul Jihad Islami (HUJI) in Pakistan, which has connections to al Qaeda, and Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, also known as Abdur Rehman, a retired major in the Pakistani military. Neither man is in police custody.

According to documents released by US authorities, Headley met Rehman and members of the Lashkar terrorist group in Pakistan. Rehman is said to have introduced Headley to Kashmiri who allegedly came up with the idea of the truck bomb.Kashmiri is also reported to have put Headley in contact with various associates in a number of European countries ‘who could provide Headley with money, weapons and manpower for the newspaper attack’.

Since the initial details of the plot emerged in October with the arrests of Headley and Rana, the newspaper has tightened security at its Copenhagen and Århus locations.

The newspaper has also hired a head of security in the form of Torben Schiøtt, who has worked with the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) for the last 10 years.

He will be responsible for seeing through changes to security systems as well as training staff how to react in the case of a possible terrorist attack.

‘Hopefully the employees will get even more of a sense that we’re taking security seriously when there are people out there who say they want to threaten us. We’re taking action as if it could be a reality,’ said Jens Bruun, group managing director of Jyllands-Posten’s publisher.

Quote: "Ulf Erik Knudsen, a fourth term member of Norway’s Stortinget, said he posted the picture “in sympathy with one who is threatened by forces that want to restrict freedom of expression.” "

Well I'm pretty sure that Ulf Erik Knudsen will be mightily dismayed at Kurt Westergaard taking out a $30,000+ law suit against SIOE. SIAD and Anders Gravers for allegedly using the cartoon on a demonstration, then!

A little trivia from Vienna: My mother was born there in the beginning of last century. She told me, that when the girls were playing in the parks (e.g. Türkenschanzpark!!!) they had a song game going something like:

On the other hand, this should make for a nice little business exporting Norwegian flags to Pakistan, which I'm sure wouldn't be much of a marketing opportunity for Norwegian flag-makers, had this slight misunderstanding about religion not happened between both countries.

I mean, if America was involved in this cartoon mess, I'm sure someone would already have bought Google ads to push into Pakistan specially designed Stars and Stripes, easy to set fire to, and guaranteed to give out big, beautiful, picture-friendly flames for at least two minutes and a half.

The Deluxe model comes with incorporated ignition (just pull off the string), and , for you real cheap djihadists over there, we have an executable file which will photoshop a picture of you and your pals behind a jpeg of an American flag engulfed in flames.

On the other hand, if you're serious about your Moslem obligations (which you should), we have a subscription service all set for you. Just give us your credit card number, and whenever another Muslim-offending country gets on the TV news, you'll get a new flag free of charge.

Endless hours of harmless fun guaranteed, or your money back -- see you in hell for the refund.